join me sunday night at 5:00 and 7:00 for a special "hardball" with vice president joe biden. coming up next, "the ed show" >> it makes october the 32nd straight month of private sector job growth, who would have thought it.

case about the improving economy. >> in 2008 we were in the middle of two wars, and the worst economic crisis since the great depression. today our businesses have created nearly 5.5 million new jobs and this morning we learned companies hired more workers in october than at any time in the last eight months. >> with only four days left on the campaign trail, the candidates were all over the crucial state of ohio. president obama made three different stops today in that state. then out west to springfield, ohio. then he headed north to lima, ohio. mitt romney was not going to be outdone. here is a look at another romney campaign rock concert and victory rally outside cincinnati. romney was also in wisconsin this morning, portraying himself

as the candidate of change? >> the question of this election comes down to this. do you want more of the same, or do you want real change? and we bring real change. >> do you want 32 more months of private sector job growth? romney sure has a funny way of showing change, doesn't he? take a look at romney's surrogates at tonight's ohio victory rally. former secretary of state condoleezza rice, former labor secretary elaine chao, bobby jindal, tom ridge and also ohio senator rob portman. all five of these folks worked with the bush administration. in fact, mitt romney's campaign is looking more and more like the bush white house every day. romney even pulled out the old dick cheney trick of scaring voters before an election. >> the same path we're on means $20 trillion in debt in four years. it means crippling unemployment continues. of course it turns out it's not true. this is not a game. these are people's jobs.

these are people's lives. the auto industry, they spend a lot of money advertising and branding and letting folks know that we're back and we're here in america and we're making american cars with american workers. and now suddenly you got a guy going out there saying, you know, something that is not true? you don't scare hard working americans, just to scare up some votes. that's not what being president is about. >> when romney isn't buying scared voters, he's making up a fantasy about working across the aisle?

in america and we're making american cars with american workers. and now suddenly you got a guy going out there saying, you know, something that is not true? you don't scare hard working americans, just to scare up some votes. that's not what being president is about. >> when romney isn't buying scared voters, he's making up a fantasy about working across the aisle? >> you know that if the president is re-elected, he will still be unable to work with the people in congress. i mean, he's ignored them. he's attacked them. he's blamed them. the debt ceiling will come up again. and shut down in default will be threatened. >> so what is happening here is that mitt romney is telling the american people we need to cave in to the gop hostage takers. romney says the president should have given in to mitch mcconnell and john boehner. anything they wanted, boys. of course, they wanted to defeat

president obama from the start, but despite their obstruction, unemployment has fallen to the lowest point since president obama's first month in office. today, job numbers closed the chapter of president obama's first term, and his economic agenda. it's worked. but if you need to be reminded of where this country was when he took office, just listen to house democratic leader nancy pelosi from my radio show today. >> four years ago in september, when president bush was president, and on september 18th when i had the chairman of the fed and the secretary of the treasury and others in my office, democrats and republicans, house and senate leadership, the chairman of the fed said if we do not act immediately, we will not have an economy by monday. are we better off today than we were four years ago? our country absolutely is. can it be better for many of america's families? absolutely and it would have been if the republicans had not obstructed. >> the president and the democrats were able to get this country going, i guess you could

say with one arm tied behind their backs. mitt romney is ready to turn over the reins to the guys who caused the mess? really? voters have four days to decide which way this country wants to go. i'm joined tonight by richard wolffe, msnbc political analyst and vice president, executive director and editor of msnbc.com. and david k. johnson, pulitzer prize winning journalist and author of "the fine print." david, you first tonight. what do these job numbers mean? how good are they? >> oh, they're good and they're good in the details. all of the job growth, ed, was in the private sector. 184,000 private sector job, there were some losses in government jobs, that's why the number is 171,000. they revised upward the number of jobs for the last two months. so remember jack welch and the republicans saying, they were manipulating the numbers and attacking the professionalism of the people who do this work,

well, they actually understated things a month ago. in addition, the number of people who voluntarily quit their jobs, that's an indication of how confident people are, they can find a new job, that number went up so that's a very good sign. and there is another number in the different report, the number of housing vacancies, both rental and owner occupied has declined which tells you the housing market is improving. all of the numbers are getting better. they're not as far as long as we need to be, but the direction is very clear and it is all upward. >> richard, how important is this jobs report politically? i mean, in the closing days to the election, certainly it must have a much more of an impact than, say, something maybe six or seven months ago. >> right, well, it certainly isn't bad news and to that extent that's a good thing for the president. but actually i don't think any single month of statistics is as important as seeing consumer confidence pick up so steadily over the last several months.

you can see it now just in these statistics, but in consumer spending, the way economists measure consumer confidence has been rising very steadily and that does translate directly to job approval numbers, which have also been ticking up steadily for this president. so, you know for years, most of the first term, people in the media and certainly republicans have been beating up the president saying how come his job approval numbers are only in the low 40s? nobody gives him credit when actually they have gone into the high 40s and topped 50%. and, you know, very well the folks in boston who are running the romney campaign are looking at the numbers and they know it is that much harder to unseat a sitting president when your approval numbers are close to 50% and maybe even above it. >> david, we had the radical governors in a number of states on the republican side who have refused to work with the president and stalled a great deal. in fact, they have attacked public sector workers, some 3 million public sector jobs have been let go in the four years

here, especially in the last couple of years there has been a lot of them. what if they had not been let go? what would our economy look like? >> well, we would be in much better shape, ed. you can figure out how much the economy needed stimulus, it is a simple mathematical equation. spending equals income. income equals spending. if one goes down, the other has to go down. when the private sector goes into recession, that's when the government should increase spending. when the private sector is doing well, that's when you cut back on government spending. that's what clinton was doing. and if we had had the size stimulus we needed and hasn't diverted 40% of it to tax cuts for business, today we would have a lot more teachers, which is future wealth for america, nurses and cops on the street. so this is very important, and we would be in much better shape, but for the republicans

insistence on taking care of the politicrats. >> what about the scare techniques that mitt romney is using and the president calling him out on it and the recession talk? >> there is the recession talk, but actually i thought more outrageous was the idea that if the president gets reelected, we're going to be back to default and this idea of a government shutdown as if it is the president who thinks that defaulting on america's debt or shutting down the government is a good idea. those are the republican tactics. you know, i'm amazed how much and how apparently confident mitt romney can be in projecting republican positions on to this president and accusing him of being responsible for everything the republicans want to do. it is just not the case. he knows that. republicans know that. but it is something that he seems to think he can spin to voters right now. >> i don't know if job numbers are going to motivate people to get out and vote, but certainly whoever the next president is, what kind of an economy, david, would you say that president would be inheriting? >> well, we still have a lot of work to do. it took 32 years or 28 years at least to do the damage that we're now cleaning up. and so there are a whole variety

of policies we need. look at what happened in new york. the infrastructure, that's a lot of what i wrote about in my new book "the fine print," it is falling apart and they're artificially inflating profits. we have a lot of building to do, a lot of investing to do in america. and what -- now that we're winding down the wars, we should be able to do that. the republicans, however, have a clear view that the real problem we face is that the rich don't have enough and we need to make sure they have more. >> richard, you anticipate any movement in the next few days or is everybody pretty much where they are? is there going to be any turn around now? >> i think there say movement because, you know, we still got to wait and see how the polls shift post hurricane sandy. one of those great things hearing mitt romney say the president cannot work with republicans, i think we saw him working pretty well with governor christie. let's see how the polls unfold in the next day or two. that's the critical moment when the last minute undecideds and there are still some out there will be making up their minds. >> all right, richard wolffe, david k. johnson, great to have

you with us, thanks for joining us. coming up, the state of the race with just four days to go. what the real numbers tell us,

coming up, a look at the state of the presidential race. we'll look at the latest numbers and we'll visit with bob shrum. nobody knows more than he does. at least that's what i say. then, more problems for ohio voters. hurricane sandy leaves thousands without power. and over 6,000 voters across the state purged from the rolls. how serious is this? we'll have the details. and paul ryan hasn't helped mitt romney a bit in wisconsin. now the congressman may have trouble hanging on to his own house seat. john nichols will join me with that. we'll be right back.

thanks for staying with us tonight. four days out, and the state of the race favors president obama. seriously. now if you look at it, it is never a lock, never going to be a lock. but the facts are here, in the swing states offering president obama is a clear path to victory. he's ahead in the polls and he's rising. in ohio, you've got president obama, he's been leading all along, and as you can see in the latest poll, averaged from real clear politics, he still is. this is why mitt romney is desperately campaigning in pennsylvania. it is a hail mary pass because he knows he's probably going to lose ohio. in wisconsin, president obama maintains a comfortable

five-point lead. president obama is also maintaining his lead in nevada. in iowa, president obama is still ahead. the national average is closer, but president obama has been on the rise there as well. so early voting has been going on for weeks now. in some states, and there are some interesting numbers on party breakdown of early voters so far. now, most early voters have been identified as democrats in ohio, nevada, iowa, florida, and north carolina according to the associated press. republicans have the edge in colorado. let's turn to bob shrum, professor of public policy at nyu and contributor to the daily beast. great to have you with us tonight. let's leave the names out of it for a moment. obama and romney. let's just take candidate a and candidate b. who would you want to be right now with the numbers playing? >> you would want to be candidate a assuming that's the unmentionable who is the president of the united states.

he has a lot of roots to 270 electoral votes. if you look at candidate b, candidate b isn't even going to florida in the next few days. you can interpret that in one of two ways. a thinks he's already got it won, and the polls don't show that at all, or alternatively he thinks he has to bet he hasn't won, that he can't carry ohio, so he has to go to pennsylvania as john mccain did, as other republicans have over the last 12, 20 years, and they never carried the state. >> so why -- with that number, and the -- with the polling that has taken place in pennsylvania, what message is out there that gives the romney camp the idea they can win pennsylvania? why would they waste days in pennsylvania and not ohio and florida? >> i think they're worried that they can't crack ohio. the president went out there, defined mitt romney in the summer, mitt romney made some progress after that first debate, but ohio settled back

down around where it was, i think really five or six points in the president's favor. so they have this dishonest ad on saying jeep is going to ship its jobs to china. and the great irony of that ad, by the way, in a news broadcast in ohio, you can see 22 consecutive political ads, the newscasters says romney has a fake ad about jobs being shipped to china. let's go to commercial break and you see the ad. so the ad is preemptively denounced. >> what about pennsylvania? could there be the calculation here that because of the storm, the eastern part of the state might have some voting problems, i'm just speculating this, and there might be a play here for romney in pennsylvania and as you said, the past 20 years the romney -- no republican has won it. but would there be a play there because of the storm? >> well, that's what they have to hope, i guess. because they don't have any other plays. the fact is if the president carries wisconsin, if he carries ohio, it is very, very hard -- romney would have to carry

everything else. that's not going to happen. you look at virginia where the president has a marginal lead, you look at florida where he's competitive, the only state that seems gone for the president is north carolina. >> okay. what about the response to hurricane sandy? do you think that this is going to have an impact? because you've got, of course, governor christie out there just praising president obama. there haven't been major complaints of resources not getting there. it is all surrounds around the power. the approval rating of the president right now is the country thinks he's doing a good job with sandy. will this play in the election? >> sure, it goes to the whole question of the character and quality of presidential leadership. romney found that out in the second debate when he went after the president on libya, got slapped down, got corrected by candy crowley, and the president

has a big advantage there. the question is deeper. the question is is this guy up to the crises we face as a nation? we saw barack obama in last week respond in exactly the way americans want him to respond, and who would have thought that chris christie would be the october surprise? that this guy would -- >> october political surprise. >> yeah. he would be the october political surprise, that he would stand up and it's true, and say the president has been incredible, he's been on the phone every time i needed him. today when he was asked, he said i haven't talked to the president today because i don't need to because fema is doing everything they asked. but if i need to, i'll call him and he'll be there. >> so if this election is about the economy, how important was the jobs report that came out today? >> i think it was important the consumer confidence number important, the number that shows

retail sales going up was important. and that's all reflected in the polling. there is a lot of different polling. for example, in the purple poll, you now see the lines crossing on whether or not people think the economy is doing better. a year ago people had no notion, no belief that the economy was doing better. so a lot more economic confidence, i think bill clinton told a powerful story at the convention this was going to take some time, but we were on the up tick and that we were headed in the right direction. i think people believe that. >> yeah. clinton has -- president clinton has done a heck of a job. >> isn't he great? >> he has done a heck of a job. >> and they made a big mistake, they set him up as the validater, the referee, he came in and he validated barack obama. >> bob shrum, thank you. up next, the war on voters. find out why citizens are facing a growing threat at the polls. and what you can do to fight back on tuesday. and later, tea party extremism takes its toll on key races. stay tuned.

i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital

that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral to see a specialist. so don't wait. call now and request this free decision guide to help you better understand medicare... and which aarp medicare supplement plan might be best for you. there's a wide range to choose from. we love to travel -- and there's so much more to see. so we found a plan that can travel with us. anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands a year in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road.

i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is.

good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for staying with us. if you're not worried about the election tonight, this story might change your mind a little bit. voter suppression tactics are ramping up. the advancement project reports ohio secretary of state purged 6,000 names from the voter rolls, 38% of the voters turned out to be legitimate. it is not clear why those voters were singled out. we don't know if they'll get to cast a regular ballot on tuesday either. here's another problem for ohio voters. hurricane sandy flooded parts of cuyahoga county. at least 50,000 people still do not have power this day. and if the storm damage doesn't stop voters, the long lines that

are developing just might keep them away. it doesn't sound good, does it? senator rob portman had to wait in line today. some waited longer than an hour to vote. one called and said that the line was so long, she just walked away. the lines are long in florida as well. more than 2,000 people cast ballots at this nearby lab near daytona beach on the first day of early voting on wednesday. polls in south florida are reporting a, what, four-hour wait? the ballot in florida is a monster. it is about 12 pages long. the league of women voters asks the governor of the state, rick scott, to extend early voting hours. and what do you think he said? well, the republican said no. rick scott told reporters, i want everybody to get out and vote, but early voting ends saturday night. make no mistake, democrats have been fighting successfully against unfair voter i.d. laws and purged lists. but the threat remains, some

voting advocates expect a record number of voter challenges. the best advice, vote anyway. don't get bullied at the polls, and don't give up. i'm joined tonight by ohio state senator nina turner, also with us tonight is judith brown dianis, the co-director of the advancement project. judith, let me ask you first, what is the biggest threat at the polls as you see it right now? >> sure. well, thanks for having me, ed. we have moved from politicians who have tried to manipulate the laws to restrict the vote to now these partisan operatives. you know, in ohio you have husted, the secretary of state, who has been on a relentless effort to restrict the vote, who now admits there has been a glitch in the computer system. 33,000 people who registered have not found themselves on the rolls and cannot get their absentee ballots. it is a glitch. then you have true the vote, organizations that say that

they're about election integrity who are preparing to challenge the eligibility of voters at the polls because they say it is about election integrity. and, in fact, if it is about election integrity, they should go to ohio and protest outside of husted's house. that's not what it is about. they're trying to make sure the people who turned out in record numbers in 2008, african-americans, latinos, young voters and the elderly, are not able to vote this year. >> senator turner, how does this news hit your ears? 33,000 votes, and, of course, this report of 6,000 voters purged and 38% of them were legitimate. what do you make of this? >> it is pretty darn sad, ed, but we're not going to let anybody turn us around. not only do we have that glitch which was a -- the bureau of motor vehicles glitch between sending information to the secretary of state's office about ohioans who had changed their addresses on that, and the

they did not send that information to the secretary of state, so now local boards of elections are just getting those addresses, so those folks may not have their absentee ballot requests. we have another glitch which is a search engine glitch, ed, which has some voters who are registered to vote, they're receiving notification that they are not registered to vote when that is not true. here in cuyahoga county, our director of the board of elections filed 865 people, but for the fact that she scrubbed that list, would have been disenfranchised. this is ridiculous. it is shameful, and i question the so-called glitch. but whatever it is, the secretary of state needs to put politics aside and do his freaking job, which is to make sure that everybody in this state who is registered and eligible to vote have the opportunity to vote. and i think he's having too much of a cavalier attitude when it

comes to other folks' right to vote. >> well, what do you want him to do right now, with all of this going on? what should he do, senator? >> one of the things he should do is direct the boards of elections to not only send first class letters to people who are impacted by this through no fault of their own, he should make sure if we have e-mail addresses and phone calls that folks are called and they also receive some type of e-mail notification. he could ask news stations to do public service announcements. we should do everything possible to make sure that people are not unjustly disenfranchised. it makes no sense. and these group of voters we're talking about right now have done what is right. and your point about sandy, hurricane sandy has had an impact here in cuyahoga county and throughout ohio, and there still are 50,000 people without power in cuyahoga county. can you imagine having to endure that and get some notification that you are not registered to vote when, in fact, you are? we need to stop playing games. he needs to make sure that people have the right to vote. game time is over. it is time for people to be able

to vote and he should do everything in his power to make sure that that happens. >> judith, what is the remedy in your opinion at this point for ohio? it seems like the problems are multiplying. >> yeah, in ohio, you know, we'll be watching at the polls. we'll be making sure there is not challenges that happen. but, you know, at the end of the day, husted has shown he's not about free, fair and accessible elections. and we have got to stand up against this. we have been winning. we have been fighting back. their plans have back fired so far. but now we're seeing the moves of desperation. desperation to steal the election. and we have got to stand up and say no, we won't be bullied at the polls and, in fact, any secretary of state that stands in our way is going to be gone too. >> amen. >> ohio state senator nina turner and judith brown dianis, thank you for joining us tonight. it is a story we'll stay on through the weekend. a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show". >> i think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, it is something that god intended to happen. >> richard mourdock's collapse in indiana is now causing headaches for michele bachmann.

next, find out how the tea party darling is trying to spin mourdock's rape remarks. the fox and friends see a conspiracy theory in a hurricane sandy benefit concert. >> hurricane benefit or a concert for obama? >> we'll take a seat on the crazy couch ahead. and wisconsin is looking strong for the president, but not for paul ryan. >> you're sick and tired of it, and i am too. >> john nichols has the latest from the badger state.

welcome back to "the ed show." should have been an easy win for the gop, but remarks made by republican indiana senate candidate richard mourdock about rape victims and abortions are taking their toll. the latest polling shows democrat joe donley ahead by double digits. the washington post changing the

race from tossup to leading democratic. nebraska was supposed to be in for the bag for the republicans as well, but now tea party favorite deb fisher who holds the same view as mourdock, on abortion, is losing ground to her democratic opponent, former senator bob kerrey. kerrey also got a boost from senator chuck hagel, a republican. meanwhile, republicans who had rejected todd akin in missouri after his comments about legitimate rape are now having second thoughts. national republicans won't say whether they're injected funds into missouri, but suddenly akin received more than $2 million in the final days of the campaign. but the extremism is taking its toll on other high profile races in the house. joe walsh in illinois seems to be toast. polls are tightening for steve king in iowa. things are not looking real good for congressman alan west in florida. his republican opponent in the

primary just endorsed the democrat in the race. michele bachmann is locked in a tight race against democratic challenger jim graves. the right wing's war on women came up in the last debate. bachmann was asked about richard mourdock's remarks. bachmann wouldn't tell voters where she stood, dodging questions about abortion, access for rape victims. >> you heard what richard mourdock said and you know that has been controversial. god intended this to happen if a fetus results a consequence of that rape. i want to know if you agree with that. >> what i agree with is i'm 100% pro-life and i agree with the position of the catholic church on this issue. >> let's bring in kelly goth, political correspondent for theroot.com and democratic strategist chris kafinis. the war on women. these remarks by mourdock continued to erode away. how big of an impact is this going to have on these races?

>> huge. it already is, right? and i think the way i look at this, ed, is the other perspective of the gop was that this election cycle was essentially about three issues. the economy, the economy, the economy. and that is partially true, right? but you can be the brightest economic business mind on the planet and if you run for office and you say i kick puppies in my spare time, i like adolf hitler, i hate black people, people aren't going to vote for you. i think what a lost the men in the gop underestimated is in the eyes of a lot of americans, making crazy insulting comments about rape falls along those lines and they won't for candidates even if the economy is the number one issue and they're making these crazy comments. >> michele bachmann had a hard time splitting away from richard mourdock's comments. >> because she agrees with him but doesn't want to say that out loud because she sees what

happens when you say that out loud. they can't get away from this issue. it has become the albatross around the neck of every republican candidate and that's what we're seeing. voters don't compare for hypocrisy. one republican congressman we didn't hear mentioned is scott desjarlais. i may be mispronouncing his name, the pro-life tea party candidate caught on tape pressuring his girlfriend to get an abortion, right? meanwhile, he's trying to make it the procedure illegal for rape victims. so voters don't care for this sort of nonsense and that's what we're seeing. his race is tightening. he's an incumbent and his race is tightening as well. >> it is. chris, it is interesting that in different parts of the country, the most aggressive people on the president are having trouble winning re-election. west in florida. king in iowa. walsh in illinois. and bachmann, of course, is in a

tight race in minnesota. what are we seeing here? >> well, i think what you're seeing is this kind of growing, you know, desire among the american people to move away from basically low torch politics. and there is -- i think there is something that has been happening new in two cycles. in particular in the senate races. there were three races last cycle during the midterms, colorado, delaware and nevada, where republicans arguably could have won with better, more reasonable candidates. and they didn't because these were tea party extremists and they blew themselves up. and now you have two races right now, the republicans, who are going to win. missouri and indiana, which they're not going to win. that's five races now over two cycles. and it is amazing to me that they have not got this message. and if they lose, and i think they're going to lose on, you know, on tuesday night, the presidential election, what is going to be amazing about this, they're going to take the lesson away from this that they didn't have a candidate who was conservative enough both in terms of the top ballot, all the way down. they just have not learned the lesson that the country is not where they are, especially on these social issues. gay marriage, immigration, choice, the country is moving in a more moderate direction and they keep trying to move this country into a far extreme direction, it is not going to happen. >> president obama has an ad for

connecticut's chris murphy. is the race closer? >> i think it is closer. i think what will happen in connecticut as well as in massachusetts, you know, these senate races, you know, it is not just in indiana and missouri where these candidates have hurt themselves and hurt the republican party. these have a hangover effect. and i think because, you know, a lot of moderate voters, one democratic base voters get mobilized, moderate voters get alienated. that's why i think senator brown will lose that seat. >> is barack obama a pretty good guy to talk about on the campaign trail with the job growth and a good report that just came out on friday today? >> depends where you are. i say in a lot of places he's much better to have on the campaign trail than he probably was a month or two ago, right? because everyone likes to have a good jobs news but particularly

when you're talking about places like ohio, and wisconsin, you know, that's -- he's more, i think, welcome there than he would have been beforehand. so it certainly is not bad news, put it that way. >> it is not bad news. it would seem to me that that's what people would be talking about in a big way. kelly, thank you for joining us. chris, good to have you on tonight. thanks so much. coming up, you won't believe what steve doocy has to say about tonight's hurricane sandy relief benefit concert. stay tuned.

up next, fox and friends tries to politicize a hurricane fund-raiser. we'll have the details. and the big finish, mitt romney makes a play for wisconsin while scott walker tries spin the poll numbers in romney's favor. john nichols has the story from the badger state. listen to my radio show on sirius xm radio channel 127 monday through friday, noon to 3:00 p.m. and follow me on twitter @edshow and like "the ed show" on facebook.

welcome back. when faced with disasters like hurricane sandy, americans, you know, we always find a way to lend a hand. we're used to taking a shirt off our back for our next door neighbor, aren't we? that's just the spirit of america. that's who we are. tonight we here at nbc universal tried to do our part with the hurricane sandy coming together telethon. the hour long special was hosted by "today" show's matt lauer. and included music from new jersey natives bruce springsteen, bon jovi, long island's billy joel, and staten island-born christina aguilera. coming together to benefit the american red cross and the relief efforts for victims of the storm. nothing controversial about that whatsoever, correct? >> why the timing? why is that today? half the state of new jersey doesn't have power and can't even watch the concert. >> sure. >> is this more political? is this more let's get this

thing on tv before the election to make president obama look presidential or is it more to help out victims? >> it does look like they are trying to squeeze things in. you have bon jovi and bruce springsteen, both supported the president of the united states, barack obama, and, in fact, mr. springsteen, i believe, has been traveling with the president of the united states. where are the conservative performers? there aren't on the list i saw. >> this just seems like a rush job because the election is -- it is going to be three days after. >> is it a hurricane benefit or a concert for obama? >> i don't know. >> where are the conservative performers? i don't know, doocy, where is clint eastwood, that's your level of performer to talk to an empty chair. this is amazing that they would actually question the timing of this. it's in the news. the need is now. the money is direct.

the country's paying attention to it. you be the judge. this is the time for us as a country to come together. this has nothing to do with politics whatsoever. this is about looking out for fellow americans. i hope you consider donating to the red cross. coming up, president obama has a lead in wisconsin but by how much? paul ryan is spending a ton of money to save his seat. he could be a two-time loser on tuesday night. we're right back. stay with us.

[ thunder crashes ] [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk.

mitt romney is attempting to chip away at president obama's lead in the state of wisconsin. romney held a campaign event earlier today and gave what his campaign called a closing argument to voters. he was introduced by scott walker who tried to spin wisconsin poll numbers on fox news today. >> it's now a toss up. >> it really is. in poll after poll it's about as close a tie as you can get. the polls out there most importantly the poll that's conducted on tuesday. >> walker is talking about the polls by the right leaning pollster rasmussen. president obama is leading by

eight points in the latest poll from marquette law school, the one he always used to quote. not only is mitt romney's run ing mate fighting for the white house, he's fighting to keep his current job. he's spending $2 million onto keep his wisconsin house seat. his opponent rob zerban has raised more money than ryan in the last quarter. there's a chance that ryan could become a two-time loser on tuesday night. let's turn to john nickels. let's talk about the president first. is wisconsin in the bag for the president? how good does it look? >> it looks very good. i'm cautious about saying in the bag. it's a very competitive state. he moved another million in yesterday. he's trying everything he can to hold onto it. you got that poll with an eight-point lead. the older university poll has a nine point lead for obama. two other polls in the last couple days with a five point lead. >> why is the president there? >> that makes total sense.

he's in iowa, wisconsin and ohio. you can't see a avenue for romney to go in. he's helping out a senate candidate. she's in a very tight, tight close race. that really is a close one. obama coming in twice, i think is very helpful to her. >> the president is going to be in madison in a few days. how big a deal is that going to be? >> i saw the street closing list. it's going to be a little hard to drive around. he's bringing bruce springsteen who madison loves. it's going to be a morning

rally. i suspect not a lot of work will get done that day. >> let's talk about paul ryan. this is unusual that man that's running for two seats in one day. is he in trouble in this house seat? this is probably the best candidate, i keep hearing this that rob zerban is the most formidable candidate that's gone against paul ryan. >> ryan has never had below 57% of the vote. he's won pretty big. he's got a lot of advantages here. rob zerban just worked it. there's no question. he's been an incredibly impressive candidate. the interesting thing is one of the big things he's kept knocking on is that the fact that ryan won't debate him. ryan was in wisconsin six times and couldn't find time to debate him. >> joe biden had him on stage a couple of times. this guy zerban is a self-made guy. this is what the republicans look for. he said i was dirt poor growing up.

how does it play? >> i think it plays well. he's been a local elected official. i drove through the district and i saw zerban signs in the most republican areas. he's running remarkable race. >> back to the tammy baldwin senate race against tommy thompson is one of the most recognized names. how is that going? >> we have one poll up with her a bit. one poll down. it looks like a tie now. >> turn out in wisconsin is one of the best states in the union when it comes to turn out. >> they tried to slow it down. the judges said they were unconstitutional so wisconsin is on track for a great big turn out. >> why hasn't paul ryan delivered the state of wisconsin to mitt romney? >> he has a political unknown in wisconsin. he's represented one-eighth of wisconsin and it wasn't a major media market. he's only been a big figure the last couple of years and he was

introduced as a guy that wants to mess with medicare, medicaid and social security. >> what about political exhaustion? what's the enthusiasm of the people. they've had recall elections and petitions being signed. are they ready to rock and roll? >> they are. june was tough for wisconsin. they are looking add baldwin and obama and zerban as a chance to push back. >> good to have you with us. that's the "ed show." he'll be here with special election coverage. the rachel maddow show starts now. >> on a personal note, i want to say one thing about this crisis. as for myself and those of us who work here on this show, we have been very lucky and very blessed this week as this disaster has unfolded in the communities we all live in. everyone on our staff is safe. nobody has been injured. our families are okay. a lot of us have property dama